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All about the Adelaide Oval

By Mohandas Menon

Adelaide is the capital and chief city in the State of South Australia. Situated on the Torrens River, near the Gulf Saint Vincent. It's a modern city of broad streets, large squares, and extensive parks.

The first mention of the game in the State came in 1839 when some weekend cricket was played at the `London Tavern' in Adelaide.

The Adelaide Oval is considered one of the most picturesque Test grounds in the world.

First-class cricket has been played here since November 1877 and since then over 500 first-class matches have been played.

International matches began here in December 1884 when the home team took on the Englishmen in the first match of the 1884-85 Ashes series. England won the match by 8 wickets.

In all 61 Test matches have been played here with Australia winning 30 and losing 15. The remaining 16 matches were drawn. Since 1992, Australia has won 9 of its 12 matches here.

The Adelaide Oval, which can accommodate about 30,000 spectators, has not been a happy hunting ground for the Indians, who have lost five of their sevens Tests played here — in 1948 (lost by an innings & 16 runs), 1967 (lost by 146 runs), 1978 (lost by 47 runs), 1981 (drawn), 1985 (drawn), 1992 (lost by 38 runs) and 1999 (lost by 285 runs).

139 individual hundreds have been scored at this ground with Don Bradman's unbeaten 299 against South Africa (Jan. 1932) being the highest ever individual score. South African Eddie Barlow's 201 in January 1964 is the highest by a visiting batsman.

Five Indian batsman have made six hundreds at this venue, with Vijay Hazare making 116 & 145 in the same match in 1948. Sandeep Patil's 174 in 1981 is the highest by an Indian at this ground.

Australian all-rounder Albert Trott's 8 for 43 on debut, against England in January 1895, is the best bowling performance at this ground, while India's Kapil Dev's 8 for 106 is the best by a visiting bowler.

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